Kathy recommended The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helms here, and now it is my turn. Since she added a picture I won’t.

I am almost done reading through it my second time with Josiah and I have been very impressed with this book. I hesitate to call it it a Bible, because it really isn’t a translation of the Word of God into English. Instead, it is a book that tells the big picture of the Bible in story form. True to it’s name, it is the BIG picture which means many stories and details are left out.

The story starts with creation, continues to the garden and the fall, and then spends the rest of the time talking about the Promised One of God. In the Old Testament portion of the book the promise of the coming Christ is mentioned over and over again as the main point of the Bible. This is good. I have come to realize that many adults do not understand that the Old Testament’s big picture is Jesus. All those stories that are percieved as weird, and the rules and regulations that seem antiquated , but it all points to the coming of Christ. This is cohesive story is a good thing to start teaching children.

The New Testament section picks right up and explains that the Jesus is the promised one from the first part of the story. Jesus ministry, teaching, and life make up the middle part. It ends with the exultation of Christ as seen by John in the book of Revelation. So what do we get out of this book in summary: God is creator; man sins; God promises a Savior; man still sins; Savior comes; man still sins and kills Him; people are saved by believing Jesus is the Savior; He is seen and explained throughout the entire Scriptures by His disciples; He will come again! Praise the Lord to that story of the Bible.

The only down sides that I find in this book are twofold and somewhat minor. I really miss some of the stories that are left out of the Old Testament, like Jonah. Second, being an opponent of icons, I am a little bothered by the picture representations of Jesus. I know they aren’t used in worship and they are trying to teach small children about him, so I guess it is my problem. None of the pictures are done in poor taste like the Jesus action figures ( you can go here for an even worse kind of Jesus action figure, I saw them here on a video ) I just learned about being sold at Walmart nevertheless I am still not accustomed to them.

My final assessment is this: If you have young children/grandchildren this is a great book to have for the use of teaching the story of the Bible. It is a great jumping off place and I know Josiah doesn’t understand what I am saying, but I still explain things in more detail to get myself ready for the day when he can. –Dirk

Kathy’s note: While I agree with Dirk’s iconoclast sentiments, I think I’m ok with the depictions of Jesus here because while Jesus is God, He is also human. It is the human aspect that we can see. I have come to be ok with pictures of Jesus if they are dealing with his earthly ministry and are not used for worship. For that reason, I thinks this book will be helpful for our kids.